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Bubbles

Quintrelle Tangoes With ByFlosin - 4/12/06 - 28/1/13

There's no easy way to tell you this.

I woke up at 3.55 a.m. to find Bubbles stretched out and still beside me on the bed with Holly gently licking her face. Then I realised there was a foul smell in the room and the bed was soaking wet. Bubba was very still. I looked to see if she was breathing but she was not. I fetched the stethoscope to see if there was a heartbeat, but there was not.

A few days before Christmas she had her annual health check at the vets. No heart murmour to be heard, nothing else wrong either. The vet asked me how I keep my dogs so healthy and said Bubba was in remarkable condition for her age and breed. She said I must have been doing something right.

I will swear there was nothing whatsoever wrong with her yesterday or indeed any day before. She ate a hearty dinner, as usual last night, then tried to steal a treat or two from the table before she went out to toilet in the garden. When we went to bed she snuggled up with me and gave kisses again as usual.

Holly P is very subdued. I am sure she understands that Bubbles has gone and I think she must have comforted her as she passed. I just asked her if she is allright. She gave gentle wags of her tail to tell me yes and has come to sit at my feet. I will let her grieve in her own way.

When the boys wake up I will take them upstairs to say goodbye. I have no idea how they will react. Later I will take her out to the big mound of topsoil at the end of the garden where she liked to sit and make a grave for her. It was her favourite place out there.

I keep asking myself why, but of course there is no answer. Devastated, just devastated.

I am so sorry for your loss of Bubbles. This must have been so very traumatic to awaken and find her, and so terribly sad and deeply shocking in a relatively young, and only recently pronounced healthy, cavalier.

I wonder if this could have been a situation where the chordae in the heart quickly rupture? I have heard of such a sudden death in some other cavaliers and I understand it often -- perhaps typically -- cannot be heard or seen in advance. I lost one rescue dog to this shortly after he came into rescue-- his heart just went in an instant and he was only 4 or 5. The one small blessing is that they must go very very quickly with little or no awareness and not suffer. That is very small comfort indeed I know, but had Bubbles been deeply distressed you would have awakened. And she was at your side too, in a place that was happy, warm and comforting. I hope those thoughts bring some gentle healing as time passes.

I'm so sorry for your sudden unexpected loss of Bubbles. Sometimes I come home and Oliver doesn't greet me and I have to spend time looking for him and I always wonder - did he just die while I was out? Like Karlin said, I hope you can draw comfort from knowing that she passed while being in the safest, most loving place she could be in.

I'm heartbroken for you. The whole story is awful and I'm at a loss for words, shock!!!!!!! I agree the only bright spot is that she was fine and it must have been quick but even so I'm sure that is of little comfort to you today. I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you and the other dogs are able to comfort each other.

Melissa
"If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life."
-Roger Caras